The Selective Ion-Exchange Removal of Ammonia from Mining Wastewater
The Canadian mining industry is a multi-billion-dollar effort and one of Canada’s largest industrial sectors, creating jobs and security across the country. Certain practices employed within the industry have led to great developments, while increasing productivity and reducing costs. One such pract...
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| Format: | Others |
| Language: | en |
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Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10393/37543 http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-21812 |
| Summary: | The Canadian mining industry is a multi-billion-dollar effort and one of Canada’s largest industrial sectors, creating jobs and security across the country. Certain practices employed within the industry have led to great developments, while increasing productivity and reducing costs. One such practice is the use of nitrogen-based explosives, which have serious environmental repercussions, namely the introduction of large quantities of ammonia into the ecosystem through means of complex blends of wastewaters also containing various metals. These explosive impacted mining wastewaters (EIMWW), must be treated before being introduced into natural waterways as ammonia pose several threats to the environment including the depletion of dissolved oxygen as well as acute toxicity for fish. Newterra, a provider of modular treatment solutions for water, wastewater and groundwater, requested an assessment of the feasibility of a brine-based ion exchange (IE) system for the removal of ammonia from EIMWW, that would be simple to operate and could be deployed in remote areas. The following thesis consists of an evaluation of several IE materials, to determine the feasibility of an IE system for the treatment of real EIMWW. Potassium and calcium were determined to be the problematic ions present in the EIMWW, potentially leading to competitive adsorption issues. This was accomplished by comparing batch IE isotherms for five different IE materials; one natural zeolite (clinoptilolite), one modified clinoptilolite (Resintech SIR-600), and three synthetic resins (Purolite SSTC60, Amberlite IR120 Na and Bojie BC121 H) using both a synthetic single-solute ammonia wastewater and real EIMWW with a total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) concentration of 3.87 meq TAN/L (~70 mg/L). The three synthetic resins produced the largest reductions in capacities from the effects of competition and featured the following exchange capacities when treating EIMWW: 0.24±0.03, 0.25±0.01 and 0.22±0.001 meq TAN/g for the Purolite, Amberlite and Bojie resins respectively. These were respective reductions of 87±0.96, 86±0.80 and 87±0.03 % compared to their single-solute TAN solution capacities. The two zeolites featured higher multi-component exchange capacities; 0.32±0.04 meq TAN/g for the clinoptilolite and 0.42±0.01 meq TAN/g for the SIR-600. Furthermore, calcium was found to pose minimal competitive effects and potassium was responsible for the most capacity reduction. Batch regeneration experiments with the clinoptilolite and SIR-600 were undertaken to evaluate the long-term performance of both materials. These consisted of IE isotherms with the EIMWW followed by material regeneration with various regenerants including a 2.5 % KCl/2.5 % NaCl, a 5 % KCl, and a 2.5, 5 and 10 % NaCl solution. Ultimately, the 5 % and 10 % NaCl solutions were the only regenerants to result in an increase of capacity with the 10 % solution featuring higher capacities for both materials. After four exchange/regeneration cycles using a 10 % NaCl brine, the clinoptilolite produced the following capacities: 0.16±0.01 meq Ca2+/g, 0.39±0.06 meq K+/g and 0.34±0.02 meq TAN/g. For the same conditions the Resintech SIR-600 resulted in the following capacities: 0.12±0.01 meq Ca2+/g, 0.52±0.01 meq K+/g and 0.46±0.00 meq TAN/g. Based on the higher TAN exchange performance, column studies were performed with the Resintech SIR-600 to validate the material’s performance using a more realistic mode of operation similar to real world applications. This was accomplished by comparing the capacities of the material using both a single solute TAN wastewater as well as the EIMWW and a breakthrough concentration criterion of 0.55 meq TAN/L (~10 mg/L). The EIMWW featured breakthrough after only 50 bed volumes, comparatively to the synthetic TAN solution where breakthrough occurred after 274 bed volumes, indicating that competition played a significant role in the performance of the system. |
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